


Supernatural'd Away

by nanianela



Category: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Wee!chesters, basically supernatural characters with spirited away plot, not exactly a crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:51:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2624111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanianela/pseuds/nanianela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean are moving once again when John takes a wrong turn. He decides to check out a strange tunnel, and the boys follow when he doesn't come back. John was cursed, and now the brothers are thrown into a world of angels, demons and spirits at a Bath House. Eventual sweet Destiel, no smut. (Mostly) Good!Demons. Weechester fic with lots of fluffiness :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was just something cute I decided to whip up one day, I hope you like it in all it's fluffiness. Please let me know what you think!

(original drawing is by linneart on tumblr, and I've simply manipulated it. The post is [here](http://linneart.tumblr.com/post/79376851821), or at http://linneart.tumblr.com/post/79376851821)

Sammy was fast asleep in the back of the Impala, his cheek, still a little chubby from baby fat at eight, pressed onto the soft leather seat as the car rumbled over a few bumps.

Dean had a small frown plastered on his face as he watched the woodsy landscape go by, gripping tightly to the flowers his little 6th grade girlfriend had given him as a goodbye present.

The plastic crinkled in his hands as he pressed the flowers close, he felt anger rolling off him like heat waves. They'd stayed at this last place for almost seven months, actually giving him time to make friends and get a girlfriend. And now his dad was tearing him and his brother away once again when he finished the hunt.

"We're almost there, Dean. Stop moping." John's eyes slid over to look at Dean from the rear veiw mirror. "We're here for you and your brother's safety, Dean. We're in the middle of nowhere, we can chill out in safety for a little before the next hunt, okay?" He said gruffly.

"I liked my old school better," Dean shot back moodily.

"Your old school wasn't safe anymore." John pressed his lips together and squeezed his knuckles on the steering wheel. Dean looked down.

"Dad, my flowers are dying! Just like my dreams of being with Suzie!"

John rolled his eyes. "None of this chick-flick stuff, Dean, I've told you that before. Just quit smothering them, we'll put them in water once we get to our new motel."

Dean shut his mouth tight and just watched the trees roll by. He saw his new school and stuck his tongue out at it. Life on the road sucked _ass_. When he was big and old he was going to live in one place and never, ever, ever have to move again. Dean let himself get lost in a daydream, thinking about what life would be like when he was older. He'd have a house with a lawn he could mow every week, it would have a white porch and a red door and his neighborhood dads would come over for beer and football games and Sammy would be his neighbor too of course..

He was jerked out of his daydream as the car suddenly shuddered to a stop. Dean blinked and looked out the window; he saw piles and piles of grey stones shaped like squares.

No, he took that back. They were tiny little stone _birdhouses_ , made of stone and cracked and dotted with moss.

"Dammit. I think I took a wrong turn." John mumbled under his breath, scrutinizing the map as he folded it all out to its full volume. "Where are we? This can't be right."

"Hey, dad?" Dean asked, pointing to the tumble of stony birdhouses outside. "What are those? They look like little birdhouses. Maybe that can help you with the map?"

John tore his eyes away from the map to look out his window. "Oh. They're shrines, they're like birdhouses because they are supposed to worship the bird spirits, the angels. We must be in a very superstitious town." He frowned and looked back at the map again.

"Huh. Maybe we should just keep driving. We'll find it again, Dean. Just hold on to those flowers, kay kiddo?"

Dean nodded, and the car began moving again. His eyes followed those strange little birdhouses until they were out of view. Who were the bird spirits? And why would they need to be worshipped?

The road began to get bumpier and bumpier and the forrest more woodsy as the trees soon formed a huge, leafy tunnel around the car.

Sam woke up with a gasp and clung to Dean's arm as they rattled violently.

"Dean! What's going on?" Sam insisted, almost hitting his head on top of the car with another harsh bump.

"Dad's being stubborn again," Dean shot back quickly, so that he wouldn't bite his tongue on the next bump.

He looked out the window and saw a strange statue just in the middle of these woods, abandoned. He only got a quick glance of the mossy stone before the greenery swallowed it up again, but he could have sworn it was a statue of a person with wings, their heads bowed. Was that the bird spirit his dad had mentioned earlier?

The car slammed to a halt, and Sam finally let go from his tight grip on Dean's arm. Dean had a sharp intake of breath- that little statue he'd seen in the woods, another one was here in front of the car, blocking it from going any further.

"Crap." John muttered under his breath and wrenched the car door open. Behind the mossy statue of the angel with a bowed head was a very dark, very long tunnel cutting into a dilapidating red building, round at the top like those mouse holes from Tom & Jerry (Sammy's favorite cartoon).

"This looks suspicous. Look, Dean, Sam, come here. It's not even a real building. It's made of plaster, see?" He knocked on the rusty red, peeling building a few times with his knuckles. Dean brought his eyebrows together.

"I didn't hear anything about a fake building in this town." John frowned, reaching for his pistol.

"Good observation, Dean. Neither did I. This town might not be as safe as I originally thought." He pulled out his gun and cocked it, staring into the deep black void that was the tunnel.

"I need to check this out. Maybe this isn't the town for us, boys. Dean, take your brother and wait in the car."

"But-!" Dean immediately protested, and John put up an irritated finger to stop him.

"No buts, kiddo. I'm checking this out, it could be dangerous. I'll be back in ten minutes." Dean was about to say something but stopped himself, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Fine." He bit out, tugging Sammy along by the sleeve back to the Impala.

"C'mon, Sammy. Let's go to the car." They'd been waiting for ten minutes, Dean couldn't tear his eyes away from that dark, dark tunnel that he'd seen his dad disappear into last.

"Dean, I don't like that statue." Sam complained for the tenth time. "It's looking at me."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Sammy, quit it. It can't be looking at you, it's head was bowed."

"Dean, I'm serious!" Sam shot back. "Dude, look!"

Dean shuddered. His brother had been right. The angel, wings stretched up to the skies, was now looking directly into the car with stony eyes.

"Gaa. Gross." Dean voiced, opening the car door. "C'mon Sammy, this place is giving me the creeps. Let's go find dad." Sam agreed without protest, tightly clinging to Dean's arm as they stood in front of the arched tunnel.

A wind picked up, as if pulling them inside. Dean could have sworn the old red building _groaned_.

"I don't mind the statue anymore, Dean!" Sam whimpered. "Let's wait in the car, please! Like dad said!"

"Dad said he'd be back in ten minutes, too. We have to find him." Dean said with determination, pretending to not be scared so Sam wouldn't be. But truth was this whole thing was scary as hell to him.

Their footfalls clacked hollowly as they began making their way through the tunnel, darkness swallowing them up.

"Sammy! Don't cling so hard, I'll trip!" They finally made it out, into a bright, sunny feild. More stone statues lay in the blowing green grasses, most of them were more angels or bird spirits or whatever they were, but some were strange creatures or faces or frogs. Huh, Dean hadn't remembered the sky being this blue from the car.

Lush white clouds glided by, and yellow flowers bowed and dipped in the warm breeze. It was almost hard to think of this place as being dangerous, it was so beautiful.

But still, Papa Winchester was nowhere to be seen, so something had to be wrong. And so their journey began. 


	2. Chapter 2

"Dean? Where's daddy?" Sam asked, finally letting go of his arm as he squinted his eyes and looked around for him, puffing his long brown hair out of his face as the wind combed though it.

Dean swallowed back the fear that was pinching in the back of his throat. "Look, it looks like there's a town up there. Maybe he went over there." Dean grabbed Sam's sleeve once again, and started toting him towards the strange, abandoned town.

Dean helped Sam with his little legs cross over a tumble of grey river stones from a dried up bed, and they finally stumbled up the stairs and got a closer look at the abandoned town.

There were colorful yet peeling little shops and booths, and lanterns strung up overhead and hanging from all the shops. Sam observed with wide green-blue eyes, tipping his head and trying to take in everything at once. It was abandoned, completely, and everything was peeling and grimy and crumbling but it was so beautiful at the same time.

"Sam, quit lagging! I think I hear something!" Dean scolded, and the two were off, running as fast as their short legs could take them toward noises of plates clattering and food being wolfed down with loud snorts and smacks. 

Dean and Sam rounded the corner just in time to see John, bent over a large feast of food at one of the eating booths, turn into a huge, fat pig. His nose elongated and flattened, his body ballooned and bursted all the buttons on his flannel and tore the seams of his jeans. His hands hardened and turned into split hooves, and the massive pig crashed to the ground, no longer able to balance on the tiny stool. It squealed and snorted, trying to roll over.

"Dad!" Dean and Sam screamed at the same time, the fear immunizing them from wanting to take a bite of the delicious-smelling food.

"Sammy! C'mon, we have to find a way out of here!" Dean ordered, tears springing to his eyes which he quickly blinked and swallowed away. He grabbed Sam's hand and the their hearts were pounding as they sprinted, just running in any direction, just trying to get out of this marketplace that was clearly cursed.

They found themselves at an old, curved bridge with red wood railings, and they stumbled to a stop, not wanting to cross over to the tall, strange oriental red house on the other side. "W-wrong way," Sam stammered, and then ducked his face into Dean's chest, sobbing freely as he clung tightly with his arms around him. Sam was only eight, and Dean couldn't blame him for crying. He would have cried when he was eight, too. But he was twelve now, and he had to keep strong for Sammy.

Dean put his hand over Sam's shoulder blades gently and dipped his head, looking at his mop of dark brown hair and not saying anything for a second. "We can fix this, Sammy. Don't worr-." He whispered, but was interrupted by a rough, loud voice.

"What are you doing here?" It demanded, and Dean's head snapped up to the source of the noise. The person who had spoken looked around his age, maybe twelve or thirteen. He had a mess of pitch black hair and eyes that were so blue they couldn't be human, they were staring and boring into him as the kid narrowed his eyes dangerously at the two of them. "You shouldn't be here. You need to leave.  _Now_."

Dean had been so captivated by his blue eyes that he'd failed to see the bigger picture; he had gigantic, glossy raven-black wings that sprouted from his shoulder blades and folded down his back. His breath caught in his throat and Sam finally let go of him, turning to see who had spoken.

His obsidian black feathers shuffled in irritation. "Hello? Humans? Don't you hear me? Leave now, before it gets dark!" As the two brothers watched, the shadows that the railings cast on the bridge began to stretch at an unnaturally fast speed. The dark-winged angel rushed forward and spun them in the right direction, pointing. "Go! Cross over the river before all the lamps are lit! I'll distract them!"

The two complied, beginning to sprint down the wide fire way of the town once again, trying to outrun the rapidly lighting lanterns that were lighting up all around them and overhead.

The young angel spun around on the bridge and faced the Bath House, pinching his thumb and pointer finger together and blowing lightly. A tinkling sound could be heard, as his blue eyes began to brighten and glow a bright, clean light and black feathers materialized from nowhere and blew from his fingertips, fluttering in spirals toward the bath house. The sun was just about to tip over the horizon behind him. The brothers didn't have much time.

Sam shrieked and squeezed Dean's hand bone-crushingly hard, and strange blobs and shadowy spirits with multiple arms hanging tiredly with dead, white eyes were dragging themselves along all around them.

"We have to keep going, Sam! We have to cross the river!" The two kept pushing on, but they slid to a stop above the stairway that had once been perched above that jumble of stones that had barely a river. The angel statue at the top of the stairs had a waterfall of water pouring from its mouth, and now that river was a gigantic lake, black in the night air, they could barely make out the lights of the other building from across the mass of water.

"Dean! Look!" Sam cried out, pointing to a strange, multi-level boat, lit brightly with lanterns, with a large spinning water wheel on the back, propelling it swiftly forward over the dark waters.

"We have to hide. C'mon!" The two panted and stumbled over the rocks and hid in a small garden next to the staircase, trying to quiet their breathing as the boat sped closer and docked right up at the staircase. A plank fell down, and people began streaming from the doors on every level; people that looked like humans were talking and laughing airily and twirling parasols, wearing extravagant Renaissance clothing with corsets and silk black gloves and large, round-bottomed dresses, and the men with elegant and slick tuxedos. They seemed like humans- until the brothers saw their bug-like, pitch black eyes and glimpses of spaded black tails as they curled and swung like a cat's. Sam gasped, Dean cut it off as he quickly clapped his hand to his mouth.

The two stared as even more people..no,  _creatures_  streamed off the paddle boat. There were human-like people with vampire teeth and sharp nails, large lumbering grey or brown wolves slinked off the plank, things that looked like midnight-black stags with glowing red eyes clacked on noisy hooves onto the platform; wendigos. Some made no noise as they simply floated to the platform, they were ghosts, all a silvery white-blue, all with a different cause of death- one had silvery bloodspots everywhere, another had ragged, burnt clothes, another had a noose on his neck like a big, clunky necklace.

"This is just a dream. Just a dream." Dean mumbled, afraid, under his breath.

"Why am I in it, then?" Sam asked, and Dean finally tore his eyes from the paddleboat full of creatures and looked at his little brother. If he wasn't imagining it, he could see right through him, he could make out all the flowers in the bush behind him. The younger brother seemed to have seen the same thing, as he pointed at Dean with a semi-transparent finger. "Dean!"

Suddenly, he heard that same gruff voice from before at the bridge. "I'm here to help." The voice was literally  _right_  in his ear and Dean jumped, twisting to see the angel had way invaded his personal space.

"Dude! Personal bubble!" Dean couldn't help but snap at him, he was easily spooked at the moment, considering everything that was going on.

The young angel tipped his head to the side in a very bird-like gesture. "I apologize. My name is Cas and I am here to help you humans. Here." He brought out two little red balls from the pocket of his tan trenchcoat, they looked a lot like pills. "Eat these, or else you will disappear."

Dean held Sammy protectively behind him as he scrutinized the little pills. "Sure looks like poison to me." He shot back gruffly, and the angel gave him an irritated glance with those bright blue eyes.

"I am risking a lot being here and trying to help you. I tried to save you from this world, and if I wanted to harm you I would have done so already." He graveled, extending his palm again for them to take the food. Dean still looked dubious.

"You'll disappear if you don't eat food from this world. This is a place for angels, like me, demons, creatures and spirits. Not humans." Dean hesistated to reach for the crumb of food.

"You won't turn into a pig. Eat, Dean and Sam Winchester." The two finally took the crumb and ate it, it tasted like bread, nothing really special.

"See?" Cas brought his hands up, and the brothers hesitantly touched his palms. Their fingers didn't slip through, and they were opaque again.

Dean let out a sigh of relief. "But how do you know our names?"

"Later." The angel growled, his eyes suddenly shifting over the skies. Suddenly, the two tumbled and were being shoved against the wall of the stairway, his black wings fannning around them so they couldn't be seen. The three of them tried to quiet their breathing, as Cas's blue eyes traced the gigantic plume of dark smoke that was swooping and swirling in the sky, until it finally disappeared from view.

Dean brushed himself off as Cas finally released them. "What the hell was that for?" He shot out moodily.

Cas frowned back. "That smoke was the headmistress, Abaddon. She's looking for you. She runs this place, and she's not going to be happy that she has two humans here to stink up her precious bath house." He shifted his eyes all around before he finally stood up and extended a hand for them to stand up. "Come on. Stand up."

He looked out across the ink-black waters, reflecting the yellow lanterns from a far-off building. "It's too late to get you home now. So you will come with me."


	3. Chapter 3

" _Ow_!" Dean brought his hand up to his chest, narrowing his eyes at the dark-winged angel. "What the hell was that for?" He barked out, as the angel swifted turned around and wrapped the both of them with his dark wing.

"I carved sigils onto both of your ribs. You will be invisible, but only until we begin to cross the bridge. Then I must give you an even more powerful spell."

"You carv-" Dean sputtered, but then shrugged. "You know what, whatever. As long as me and my brother don't get hurt."

He was met by a piercing blue gaze. "I said you would be in _visible_ , not inaudible. Be quiet."

They walked slowly together, Sam squeezing tightly to Dean's hand as they passed all sorts of strange creatures. Huge wolves were nosing around the food piles, alongside zombies that were falling apart, skin dragging down off their faces and blistering arms. Other angels dined alongside the demons, perched atop stools and conversing animatedly with their neighbors, black spaded tails swinging like cats' and angel's wings fluttering loudly.

Sam squeezed his eyes shut and tried to not make a sound, not even a breath, as a huge, pitch-black stag glided by on spindly legs, his red eyes burning bright like coals as a hot breath rustled through Sam's light brown hair.

"This is the bridge. It has very powerful revealing magic." Cas muttered under his breath to them, tightening his raven black wing around the both of them. "Hold your breaths now. And do not breathe in again until we step off the bridge onto the other side."

The two did what they were told, sucking in a deep breath as they crossed over the bridge with all the other strange, miscellaneous creatures passed over with them.

"Welcome! Welcome, guests! Welcome to the Bath House Abaddon! Enjoy your stay! Welcome!" An rich, English accent filled the air with constant greetings. A somewhat short man clad in an all-black suit and tie had his hands tucked behind his back, nodding at each new guest. A large, dark black dog was standing next to him, the creature's massive back almost coming all the way up to the man's shoulder, the dog's red eyes glowing like coals as it panted, thick dog breath swirling into the night air. "Welcome!" The man nodded at Cas, who nodded back, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

The three passed by silently, but the demon's green eyes followed Sam and Dean underneath Cas's wing, like he knew something. Sam shivered and squeezed Dean's hand tightly, narrowly avoiding Crowley's red, spaded tail from swinging and hitting him as they passed by.

"That's the demon Crowley. He manage the finances for this whole bath house." Cas whispered to them. They kept walking, footfalls clacking loudly along the wood floorboards.

"Almost there." Cas said through gritted teeth, flicking his blue eyes over to look at them before looking forward once again. The two humans suddenly perked up as they heard someone calling out.

"Mister Cas! Mister Cas!" A shortish man with unruly brown hair, thick-framed glasses that were slightly askew and a beard came rushing out of the bath house, standing directly in front of the angel. His bright white wings were fluttering excitedly and the feathers were just as ruffled and disheveled as his hair. "Haven't you heard? _Humans_ have been spotted at the bath house!"

Cas locked his jaw and his eyes narrowed. Dean felt his lungs spasm, begging for air as he felt his face pounding, the blood rushing to his cheeks. "Not now, Chuck." Cas tried to sound as calm as possible. "I'm sort of in a hurry."

Chuck's eyes lit up with excitement as he still made no move to step out of the angel's way. "Cas! I mean,  _humans_! Wouldn't that make such an exciting research project? I mean, I've heard they can die just from  _old age!_ Or that they can get a piece of food lodged in their mouth and they can even die  _that_  way! I believe it is called "chalking". Such intriguing creatures!"

Cas could sense his humans were about to burst with their need for air, their faces turning even redder. "Chuck, really, not now." He practically growled.

The man seemed like he handn't even heard him as his eyes lit up and he looked like he was in his own little dream world. "I can see it now!" He swept his hands in the air as if he were indicating a banner. "I'd call it... _Natural; A Peek Into the Mortal World_."

"Chuck-"

Cas was interrupted by two very loud gasps for air, and the eyes behind the man's glasses widened. " _Humans_!" He yelled in disbelief, and Cas's wing bristled loudly around the two of them. Quickly, Cas extended his hand in a shoving motion and a three-dimensional shadow enveloped the angel, his baffled expression frozen on his face.

"Come on!" Cas yelled, snatching Dean's wrist and his wings pumped feircely, propelling them over the rest of the bridge and dragging them out and away from the crowd into a tiny, wooden door, that slammed shut once they'd flown through.

The two brothers tumbled to a stop, breathing deeply to make up for that crazy amount of time they'd had to hold it before.

"Sorry, Cas." Dean mumbled under his breath. "Me 'n Sammy tried."

The angel pressed his lips together and his blue eyes slipped from human face to face. "I suppose you tried your best." He sighed. The building next to them was in chaos- creatures were yelling and running amok, their shadows slipping along the paper screens, most of the noise was indistinguishable but the brothers could hear cries of "humans!" or "Mister Cas! Mister Cas!"

"What are we supposed to do now?" Sam whimpered, piecing tightly to Dean's side and looking out at Cas with glittering green-blue eyes. "What about our dad?"

Cas once again outstretched his black wing and fanned it over the two of them, making a little wall just in case anyone peeked through the screens. "There's only one thing I can think of to get all three of you out of this place safe. One of the witches cast a spell on the food, and when your father ate it he was cursed and became a pig. Abaddon is keeping him along with other intruders in the farm house. You must stay here long enough to memorize what your father's alternate form looks like, or else he could remain an animal forever."

Dean stifled a gasp, and he slung his arm over Sam's shoulder, pulling him closer as Sam's fingers tightly curled along his jacket, pinching his skin. "Just tell us what we're supposed to do." He graveled out, trying to keep the tears from his voice.

" _Mister Cas! Where is Mister Cas_?!" The din inside continued, growing even louder. Cas rushed to touch Dean's forehead, and Sam shrunk even closer to his side as Cas's fingers glowed a slight white.

"Go into the small wood door two houses over. Take the stairs down to the boiler room, where you will find the boiler man, who goes by the name Bobby." Dean saw the path clearly in his mind as Cas led him mentally through it. "You have to find work here. Ask Bobby for a job, and no matter how many times he denies you, you just have to keep asking."

He finally took his fingers off of his forehead, which remained a circle of white before quickly fading. Dean's jade eyes met the inhuman blue, pleading.

"Remember, Dean. I'm your friend." He tried to smile reassuringly. "I will make sure your family gets out of this town alive."

He swiftly stood up and turned aroud, calling out. "I'm here, calm down." He said irritably, opening a sliding screen and slipping inside.

"Good luck. And keep quiet." Cas whispered to them, smiling a little before stepping inside and closing the paper screen behind him with a shuffle of his wings.

"C'mon, Sammy. Let's go save dad." Dean grabbed his sleeve, and the two snuck through the bushes to find the tiny wooden door.


	4. Chapter 4

The two were quiet as they could be as they crawled through the little door, both scared stiff by the loud bustle and strange din of the creatures above them.

They finally tumbled outside to a strange sort of balcony. Dishes scraping and the sizzling of food could be heard, this must have been the back entrance to the kitchen. "Look! The Boiler Room!" Sam pointed and grabbed Dean's arm. "But look at this staircase! There's no rails!"

"We just have to be careful then, huh Sammy?" Dean tugged on his small hand to get him to follow as he stepped down onto the first step. A train whoosed by, clacking along the tracks a long, long way down, the headlights illuminating the dark valley down below only for a split second, the squares of light glowing along the ground from the windows made the train look like some kind of centipede.

"I don't want to. I really don't want to." Sam shrunk back into the wall, his eyes squeezing shut as he shook his head from side to side. "Please."

Dean rolled his eyes and showed Sam his back. "Fine. Hop on, then. I'll carry you."

"But what if you slip and fall?" Sam whimpered, bringing his fists up to his eyes and rubbing.

"Then I'll make sure I leave you behind. I'd die to keep you safe Sam, you know that." Dean tried to speak soothingly.

"I don't like it when you talk like that." Sam frowned, but jumped up on Dean's back anyway, wrapping his legs tightly around him for dear life.

"Okay. Ready, little monkey?" Dean laughed, and Sam pinched him.

"Don't call me that." He scolded.

Of course Dean was scared as hell, as he tried to get down this staircase as fast as possible. The steps were so damn spaced out, and not meant for twelve-year-old human legs like his. Huffing when they finally reached the bottom, the two quickly tried to stay quiet as they pressed themselves against the wall, a window high above rattled to open and a human-like person took a long drag of a cigarette, then puffed it all out at once as his head stretched into nothing but a huge mouth, rimmed with shark-like teeth, a forked tongue flicking all the smoke out and away as his face finally pulled back to normal, frowning.

"Yeah, Dick, I know! The human meat has to be served medium rare, that's what I did! The customer kept asking for it to be cooked more!" He dipped his head back inside.

Dean shuddered. If getting a job meant he could save his dad and get out of here faster, he couldn't wait. Everything about this place was making his skin crawl.

The two cautiously opened the door to a room alive with motion, spinning cogs and rattling pipes, jumping gages and bursts of steam. They squeezed their way through the tiny walkway, entering a large room with a strange, sub-level platform and wood floors, a creature with six arms was sitting in a wheelchair and at a sort of desk, grinding ingredients and turning wheels and grabbing supplies and checking the red bath tokens hanging in front of him all at once.

The man seemed to not notice that they'd even entered. "Hey. You're Bobby, aren 't you?" Dean called out, almost too agressively for someone who was going to be begging for work.

"What in the hell..?" The man turned to them, a scowl on his bearded face, his eyes in shadow from the brim of his trucker hat. "And you're a very rude little human, barging in like that."

"Why do you have so many arms?" Sam inquired, his voice so innocent and sweet that Dean doubted anyone could really deny him.

The man snorted gruffly. "I don't have legs, now do I?" He nodded to his wheelchair. "My mistake was asking a witch to heal me. She seemed to think two more pairs of arms would make up for it." He scoffed and used one of his hands to tip a beer into his mouth. "Never trust a witch with good intentions."

"We want a job." Dean spoke up, deciding to put all formalities aside. The sooner they got out of here, the better.

"Sorry. I already have all the helpers I need." Bobby nodded to all the little puffs of smoke that were dragging lumps of coal into the fiery boiler. "They used to be demon souls. Until they got broken apart into a million little peices and enchanted to work for me." He took another sip of beer. "Ask elsewhere, boys. I can't help you."

"Please! We have to rescue our dad!" Sam begged, tears beginning to waver his voice. "Please, Mr. Bobby!"

They were interrupted as there was the sound of a sliding door. The three went and peeked at the woman who was climbing into the room, a bowl of food in one hand and she was wearing a small knapsack. She had short, blonde hair, and dark black demon-eyes. Sam had to bite back a yelp when he saw her ink-black spaded tail oscilating back and forth like a cat's.

"Lunchtime!" Meg called out boredly, before sniffing and screwing up her face. "Gross. Why the hell you got humans in here, Bobby?"

Bobby shrugged, stretched one of his arms and began to eat the food she'd delievered. "They're my grandsons." He said casually, and Meg rolled her eyes, not believing his bullshit for a second.

Before she could say anything, he spoke up quickly to interrupt her, and she huffed and rolled her eyes as he began to speak.

"I want you to take these two up to Abaddon's right away, tell her the Boilerman sent her. Take the lifts up and don't stop until you get there. I've had to fight off bloodthirsty Leviathans when I first moved here after my curse." He shooed them away with one hand, while the others still kept grinding and spinning and reaching for ingredients.

"What makes you think I'll go so easy?" Meg crossed her arms and bit her lip. "You know us demons. We don't do anything for free, Spiderman. So, what's it gonna be?"

Bobby grimaced knowingly and brought out a vial of some sort. "This here's half a hundred Purgatory souls. It'll give you a little kick for around a day." He said gruffly, and her black eyes widened. "Oo!" She snatched the vial and slipped it deep into her pocket of her jeans.

"Now go and if I hear that anything bad happens to my sons, I'll be on your ass, little lady." Bobby threatened.

She rolled her eyes but beckoned to the boys anyway. "I thought you said they were your  _grand_ sons?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Tomayto, Tomahto." Bobby shot back. "Now git. Let me work."

"C'mere, little boys." Meg looked beyond annoyed, her voice sneeringly sweet. "Let's go see the wizard."

If Dean wasn't mistaken, he could have sworn he saw the Boilerman actually smiling at the two of them before he turned back to work. "Idjits," He said affectionately under his breath before working on grinding ingredients. 

Finally he was out of earshot as Dean grabbed Sam's hand, staying as far away from Meg's serpent-scaled pointy tail as possible as Meg grudgingly led them down the narrow, rice-paper walled hallway, concealed baths within them.

"You know, I don't  _bite_." Meg huffed, spinning around at the distance she saw the two little boys keeping as she waited for the next available elevator lift. "It's more like disembowelment and witchcraft."

At this, the two boys flinched and Sam bit back a whimper. She rolled her eyes and tried to stop a smile from creeping on to her face.

"You two better nut up if you want to make it here, you cocktial weenies." She shot out as she nudged them into the lift, which began to slowly slide upward.

"Son of a bitch.." Dean breathed as they got a better view of all the monsters that were teeming in this bath house, and he got a chill down his spine. Angels walked among undulating gigantic cobras, midnight-black stags delicately picked their way among the floating, opalescent ghosts and ambling wolves, and many who looked like humans but weren't; Leviathan, vampires and demons, ever-flicking a spaded tail.

He'd never seen this many monsters in one place in his life. And the weirdest part was they were all coexisting, peacefully mulling about and slipping into steaming bathwater. Time to go and try to pay his and his brother's way the hell out of here.

Finally, the lift shuddered to a stop and the two boys quickly followed as Meg hopped onto the next one, Sam was squeezing Dean's hand and closing his eyes, and Dean got a stroke of empathy and protection. He'd do anything for Sammy and his dad, even if it meant having to live and work among these monsters to keep them safe.

"Humans! I smell a human!" The two heard when the second lift ended, and Meg shoved them out and against the wall, sheilding them with her body. "Huh? I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Dick."

The brown-eyed man sneered at Meg. "Look. I know the smell, and I want a share. C'mon, I'll give you a little share of the breeding program, how about that?" His voice was smooth and fox-like, if the cunning creature could talk.

"Is  _this_  what you're smelling?" She held up the bottle of Purgatory souls and the Leviathan's eyes went wide. "Where'd you get that? Give me that!"

Meg nudged the boys to get onto the next lift, looking back for a second and winking before turning forward and distracting the man as they began to move slowly upward, alone, to Abaddon's penthouse office.


	5. Chapter 5

The lift finally slowed to a creaky stop, and the two boys peered out at the strange penthouse it had taken them to. The place was chock full of extravagancies- ornately woven rugs covered the floors, tapestries covered every inch of the walls, and Rococo era paintings cloaked the ceiling. There were fruit bowls full of fist-sized rubies and silver curtains and pearls and perfumes in glass bottles and emeralds and paintings and jewelry everywhere the eye fell. It was overwhelming to the boys, who spent much of their life on the road eating Subway and smelling like different motel shampoos every night.

They tentatively came forward to the ornately carved wood door, this one was a deep green, and Dean pounded the golden knocker, it was a little golden devil's head, and waited.

The ornament rattled to life, the voice tinny and faraway like it was coming from the other end of a telephone line, and the voice was heavily accented, reminding the boys of the man they'd seen giving out greetings on the bridge, the red-tailed demon Crowley.

"Now, what do you dumbasses want?" He shot out irritably.

Dean answered, maybe a little too loudly. "We want a job. Bobby the Boilerman recommended us."

The knocker rattled impatiently and rolled its huge gold eyes all the way around. "Well, if it isn't those pesky humans everyone's been gossiping about. Hello, boys." He drawled, and Sam could have sworn he saw the knocker smirking. "Good luck, moose and squirrel. I'd be damn surprised if you make it out of here alive."

A faint clicking could be heard inside, and the door swung open, revealing yet another fancy room stuffed grotesquely to the brim with even more extravagancies, and the door this time was ruby red, with no knocker and not even a doorknob. But no sign of the headmistress Abaddon.

"Come in." A smooth voice beckoned, and the two had no idea what to do. Where had the voice come from? And how were they supposed to open the door?

"Oh, you lazy asses. I said  _come in._ " They were dragged through many rooms stuffed with treasures of all kinds, paintings, statues, Egyptian gold pots, you name it. Everything whizzed by without enough time to really see everything, and the two tumbled into a larger, main office.

A fire was roaring heartily in the gigantic hearth, and the woman was leaning casually at her desk, her combat-booted feet crossed and resting on her desk. She chewed on the end of a feather quill, looking somewhat out of place in all the fancy surroundings, only wearing a black T-shirt (a pin-up red cartoon demon with the lettering 'the devil made me do it' printed on it), jeans and her red hair was up in a wavy ponytail.

Three hounds, slick black creatures with a blue fire dancing up from their backs like a flaming rum shot snarled and pushed closer, and she waved her hand, peeved.

"Boys, boys. Heel. Dinner isn't here yet." She called them off, and the blue flaming hellhounds grudgingly backed away.

Abaddon set her winged-eyeliner gaze on the two of them and set down the quil. "Now, what do you what?" She demanded, finally pulling her legs to set back on the floor.

Dean spoke up once again. "Me and my brother want a job. Bobby the Boilerman sent us here."

The redhead rolled her blue eyes and snorted. "Oh, the Boilerman. He was human once, before that witch cursed him. I knew he'd be a sympathizer." She huffed. "Why do you want a job? You want your little piggy daddy back?" She taunted, and Dean stiffened, feeling anger deep in his stomach.

"Give us a job! We want to work!" He bellowed, and there was a faint crying from another room, the doorway covered in velvet drapes. Abaddon's eyes widened and she straightened up.

"Shh! Shut up! You'll wake the baby!" She hissed, annoyed.

"Give us a job!" Dean amped up his voice even more, and the wailing kicked it up a notch too. Abaddon finally stood up and shoved papers at them, two quills zipping over and staying suspended, waiting to be held.

"Fine, dammit!" She hissed angrily, making her way to the curtains. "Fill out those stupid contracts."

She cooed and comforted until the crying died out, and she finally returned, her hair a little more disheleved than when she went in.

"Are you done yet?" She huffed grumpily, and the papers flew toward them and escaped the brother's grasps.

"Well, let's see what we have here. Sam and Dean. Oh, what pretty names." She waved her hand over the letters and they lifted from the paper, floating to her hand as she closed her ruby-red nailed hand over them. "They're mine now."

The two boys shivered. What did she mean that their names belonged tp her now? At least they had a job, even if they did have to sign some sketchy contract.

She turned her winged-eyeliner gaze to Dean first. "You," She started, thinking deeply. "You will go by the name of Michael from now on."

Dean was extremely surprised. But he didn't feel like a _Michael_ , he felt like a Dean. He didn't want to make her angry again, so he simply nodded and pressed his lips together.  _I'm Michael now_. He had to tell himself.  _I will call myself Michael as long as it can save my brother and dad._

"And little Sammy," Abaddon's voice was sickeningly sweet. "You'll have a new name too. It's only rational for your name to be Lucifer."

Sam nodded and tried the name out on his tongue, and leaned to Dean, who quickly wrapped his arm around his shoulder.

Abaddon rolled her eyes and shooed them away. "You've caused me enough trouble already. Cas, please take these two humans out of my sight and to the maid's quarters." She lazily flicked her wrist and the two turned around to see a very stony-faced Cas, his blue eyes half-lidded as he looked at the two humans he'd protected with almost an air of boredom.

"Come with me." Cas beckoned in a monotone voice, his ultrablack wings shuffling in irritation. "What's your name?"

Dean tilted his head to the side. But he'd addressed him and his brother before, hadn't he? "Remember? I'm D-" Then he remembered. "Oh. Um, I'm Michael, this is my little brother Lucifer." He indicated toward Sam, and Sam frowned. "I want to be called Luke or Luce. I don't like that name." He complained, and the angel nodded as if he were bored, leading them away with a faraway glance.

"You will be working in the maid's quarters with both the demon Meg and a ghost named Jo. You will work hard and never complain. You can't wear those clothes anymore, you have to only wear the clothing from this world. Hopefully you won't smell like humans after a few days." He indicated to the lift and kept his stony glare at them, and Dean felt confused and almost angry. Why was he acting like this? He thought Cas was his friend.  _I guess I thought wrong_ , he thought bitterly.

"Fine," Dean bit back, a little bit happy at the tiny indication of surprise on the angel's face. His wings puffed up just slightly with a little  _pfffft_  noise.

"Fine. Don't get yourselves killed. Keep to yourselves, work hard, and do not speak to anyone but Meg and Jo without being spoken to." Cas stepped into the lift, and gently pressed his feathers to their shoulders, half-folding his ultrablack wings out to surround them. Dean found this strange because his expression still remained utterly indifferent, keeping that stony and almost bored expression on his face as he kept his gaze straightforward as they slowly lowered, and the brothers did not expect the large gathering of peeved creatures who were crowding to meet them.

"Why the hell are the humans staying?" "No more stinky humans!" "Everything they touch gets filthy!" This and other rude hollers were being thrown around, all overlapping a unhappy collective grumble as the monsters looked on.

" _Listen up,_ " Cas bit out, surging from the lift and tightening his curve of dark black wings around the brothers, his blue eyes narrowed as if challenging anyone to argue with him. "These two can do more than pull their weight, and will work very hard. And if they don't work hard.." He finally pulled his wings off of them and tucked them with a shuffle against his back, leaving the brothers feeling strangely exposed.

"Dice them up, divide them amongst yourselves." Cas said with almost an air of boredom, motioning to the two who had pulled together once again.

"Vamps can take their blood-" (At this, a woman at the edge of the crowd with a white, lacy corset dress, ink black satin gloves and ruby red hair that was falling in ringlets fanned herself and flashed a pointy-toothed smile. 'Blood type O+, both of them. What a delicacy,' she drawled out with a lick of her red lips.)

"The werewolves can take their hearts-"(several large wolves snuffled, pawed the ground and nudged other grey, brown,or black flanks with wet black noses.)

"The zombies their brains, the ghosts their souls, and the wendigos and ghouls and Leviathan can have whatever's left." Cas finished, challenging the crowd once again with narrowed blue eyes. "Is that enough incentive for you, for them to stay?" He bit out, and everyone grumbled in agreement, although unhappily, and the crowd began to thin out.

Dean was damn angry at the person he thought was his friend.

Dean snatched up his wrist as Cas was trying to get away. "What the hell, man?" Dean barked, frowning as Cas easily escaped his grasp and avoided his eyes.

"I will meet with you later." He mumbled quickly, and Dean only saw his black wings and the back of his tan trench coat as he was swallowed into the crowd of creatures, who were just beginning to disperse.

Dean's face was set with a hard expression and Sam blinked up at him, confused. "What's wrong, De- Michael?"

"Nothing. Just sucks when you think you can trust someone and they turn into a total asshole." Dean grumbled, folding his arms as they waited for the two maids they saw making their way toward them, Meg and a ghost. "I hope I never see Cas again." Dean said bitterly.

"Don't say that!" Sam scolded. "Couldn't you see Cas was scared of the headmistress? Just like we were. And he was trying to give us a chance with the monsters. He _had_ to act like that."

Dean shrugged and reached for Sam's hand again, and the two were silent.

"This is a scary place, Michael." Sam piped up quietly just before the two women reached them. "I want to go home."

"Me too." Dean answered back. "We have to be brave, Lucy." He squeezed his smaller hand reassuringly.

Sam screwed up his face. "I don't like the name Lucy either!"

"Too bad." Dean chuckled. "It's too late. It already stuck." He laughed and ruffled his hair. They both got stony expressions as Meg approached them, along with another woman, she wasn't floating like some of the other ghosts, but she had pale skin and was just slightly see-through, with blonde hair falling in waves. Both women were wearing reddish-pink loosely fitting maid's uniforms held in place with sashes.

"I can't believe you pulled it off!" The ghost said happily, her brown eyes smiling at them. "There has to be something pretty special about you two. I'm Jo. What are your names?"

Dean wasn't sure if he was supposed to shake her hand, or if it would pass right through. He had partly extended it, but quickly shoved his hand deep into his pocket. "I'm D- oh, I mean, Michael."

Sam was smiling up at the ghost, his brown hair flopping into his eyes. "You can call me Luce. And you're the prettiest ghost I've seen yet." Dean realized he was right; her face was young and she still had nice skin, without any of the boils and rot he'd seen on other ghosts, and her expression was kindly.

She tried to hide her smile and ghost-blushed, her cheeks going silvery and more opaque. She finally regained her composure and cleared her throat. "Well, you're not going to butter me up so soon, Lu. You two still have a load of work to do."

Meg flicked her deep black tail in irritation. "Stop being so nice to them. Just get them to the maid's quarters and they'll start work tomorrow." Meg spun the other way and made her way into a different room, and Jo began to lead them toward the maid's sleeping quarters.

"It's late, and you two should get to sleep. You have your work cut off for you, that's for sure." She slid open the door, and many of the maids were already fast asleep on their futons, snuggled under their puffy multicolored comforters.

Jo opened a cabinet and began digging around in the uniforms, speaking up and explaining things to them. "God, we haven't had male maids since...wow, since a long, long time. But I'm sure I can figure out something for you two." She pulled from the very back shelf, reaching deep into it.

"Miss Jo?" Sam piped up, biting a fingernail nervously. She finally emerged from the cabinet with two folded red uniforms, she nodded at Sam to continue as she folded them open and tried to gage for size. "Too big. Damn, you two are so tiny." She muttered under her breath as Sam continued.

"Are there two Cas's here?" Sam asked, a sad expression on his small face. He thought about how nice the angel had been the first time they'd met him; saying he was risking a lot by helping them, and then telling them "Remember, I'm your friend." But then the second time he had that stupid bored expression on his face, he pretended to not even know their names. And then he'd offered to feed them to the monsters. Sam's small frown deepened.

Jo threw her head back and laughed. "Oh God, no. This Bath House can barely handle one Cas!" Dean's eyebrows drew together to try and understand what that meant, as Jo pressed a folded red uniform to his chest and Dean took it from her.

She began tugging out an extra futon, as the two began to change, Sam was blinking sleepily. Jo set up their little mat-like bed and threw down a blanket, straightening up with her hands on her hips. "Alright, little mud-monkeys. Catch a few winks, because you start work tomorrow with Meg."

Dean groaned and set his folded human clothes next to the bed, and Sam did the same. Jo laughed a little and drew the covers over them as they slipped onto the futon together. "Meg's not so bad once you get to know her. Now, get some sleep."

The two snuggled down into the bed together, and soon their breathing evened and they were both fast asleep, even when rain began to pour down on the ceiling like grains of rice, and the werewolves howled at the bright full moon that streamed its clean white light on their faces.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Sam woke up the the middle of the night, and it was basically his worst nightmare come true. Going to the bathroom alone in the dark in your own house at eight years old was scary enough, but in a house full of monsters who wanted to eat you..

"Michael!" Sam whispered, rolling Dean's shoulder. "Please! Michael, I need to pee! Real bad!"

Dean didn't wake, and he snored softly as Sam shook his shoulder. Sam realized he couldn't waste one more second on him as he let out a little whimper and quickly pattered from the room.

Sam rushed through the inner balconies, the bright moonlight his only guide, as he tried to look for any kind of sign that would indicate a restroom. No such luck, and everything was in Japanese anyway. 

He saw a group of three vampires walking and chatting, the people who usually slept during the day.

 _Be brave, Lu._  He told himself, and balled his hands into fists as he approached them. "Excuse me," He started, his voice sounding much more like a squeak than he would have liked. "Where are the bathrooms?"

One of the male vamps, a dark-skinned man dressed in a slick black tux, laughed at him and nudged his friends. "Oh, it's two floors down and the blue screen to the right." He said, and Sam nodded and quickly spun around to get to the lifts, squeezing his legs together and hopping from foot to foot. He heard the vamps laughing as they passed by.

"Ah, Gordon. You always were a mean man." One of his friends pointed out.

"Mean man, sure. Drop dead amazing vamp, then." The man Sam had asked snickered back, and Sam was much too distracted to guess what in the hell he meant.

"C'mon, c'mon!" He egged on the lift, and finally sprinted to find that blue screen door Gordon had been talking about. But it only led outside, into a garden, where it was raining heavily.

"Shit outside, human scum!" One of the she-vamps called down from the interior balcony, and the three of them erupted into laughter as Sam had no choice but to push outside and slam the screen behind him.

These creatures were mean.

He relieved himself behind a bush, and after that moved to another spot, curled up into a ball and cried. At eight years old, he didn't have much tolerance for bullying at all. And usually Dean would be there too, threatening to 'rip their lungs out' if anyone was mean to him. And he was so scared all the time lately. He needed some way to get rid of that pinching feeling in his chest.

When he sat outside for what felt like hours, getting chilled to the bone from the cold rainwater, he finally dragged himself back inside. He sniffled and dragged the back of his hand over his eyes, and was about to shut the sliding door again when his eyes lifted to meet someone else who had been in the garden.

He stared at the tall, thin person-he was guessing it was a spirit- and the thing stared back at him. There was a silence as raindrops splattered on the wood floor and began to come further into the house. The spirit had a thin, narrow body with a black cloak that faded into transparency at the edges and by the foot of the cloak. He had a bright white mask instead of a face; probably three times as big as a regular human's.

The black gap of a mouth was sagging into a small frown, and Sam felt a rush of pity. He must have been a fellow victim, mistreated, having to stand alone outside in the rain.

"Aren't you cold out there?" Sam called out uncertainly, shivering himself as a gust of wet wind brushed his sopping wet clothes. He got no reply, only a blank, masked stare. The spirit had two arrows spiking up and down from his eyes (well, painted on eyes) and the arrows were a light grey. Sam looked into those blank, painted-on eyes.

They were a bright, sunflowery yellow, and Sam wondered why the hell anyone would choose yellow when black would have been much cleaner-looking. Those brightly painted eyes were kind of creepy.

"What's your name?" Sam tried out, and wasn't surprised when he was met with nothing but a silent stare. As Sam watched, he figured maybe the spirit wasn't getting cold outside. The rainwater was seeming to just fall right through him.

But then again, he looked sad and forgotten, cast away like Sam had been. His painted yellow eyes seemed to understand him, pity him, empathize with him.  _Poor li'l guy, out in the rain. He doesn't look like a bad spirit._

"Okay, Yellow-Eyes. Would you like to come inside?" Sam asked quietly, his fingers curling over the screen and getting ready to close it again. He expected no response, but the frowning spirit finally nodded. Sam forced back a tiny gasp, and the thin spirit began to slowly glide forward on shadowy legs.

Sam jumped up and stood stiffly, his mouth pressed tight in a line. "Just close the door when you get inside, okay?" He called to the spirit, whose mouth-hole was now a little more of a smile, and the mask bobbed just slightly in a nod. Sam didn't wait to see what would happen as he spun around and booked it back inside, taking the stairway up this time.

He ran to their maid's quarters, his footsteps making little wet flapping noises as he left a trail of tiny wet footprints. He quietly stripped off his sopping wet uniform, plopping it on a soggy pile on the floor, and pulled on his human clothes next to Dean and his bed.

He slipped unded the covers, still shivering, and in his sleep, Dean breathed in the almost-forgotten scent of the human world that still lingered on Sammy's clothes.

"Michael!" Sam insisted, shaking his shoulder again. "Please wake up!"

Dean groggily peeked open an eyelid and stared into Sam's wide light eyes. "S'matter, Lu?" Dean mumbled groggily, rubbing an eyelid.

Sam silently pieced tightly to his chest, Dean tried to silence him as he felt the first shuddering sob.

"Shh. Luci, shh. It's okay, we can rescue dad." Dean whispered in his ear. "Don't cry, you'll wake the others. And then I don't know if they'll try to eat us."

Sam hiccuped again and his fists clung tightly to Dean's uniform night shirt. "I want dad back. I want to go away from here." Sam whispered back, hiccuping.

"I know. I do too, Luce. Cas said he's going to help us. I guess we'll just have to believe him. He's really all we got." Dean tried to reassure him, smoothing the hairs on the back of his little brother's head down a little.

"Yeah," Sam sniffled. "I trust Cas, Michael. I just think he has do things a certain way sometimes."

Dean nodded sleepily. "You'll see, Lu. We'll get home safe and sound." Dean moved his hand down and rubbed his back just a little. "Don't wander off, okay? Just stay close. Wake me up if you are going anywhere." Dean had noticed his wet hair but had decided not to question it.

Sam thought about all those horrid monsters and creatures he'd seen before, especially the yellow-eyed masked spirit he'd let into the house, and he clung a little tighter. "Kay." Sam whispered back, slipping his eyelids closed. "We got each other, right Michael?" He practically squeaked.

Dean smiled a little in the dark. "Yeah we do. Goodnight, li'l bro."

"G'night."

But in the middle of the night, the littler Winchester had a bad nightmare. What else is to be expected of an eight-year-old boy seeing all the creatures he could ever imagine all in one day?

Cas did not sleep. Angels didn't require it. Instead, time was spent relaxing in a low-lit parlor in the angel's quarters, where angels could relax on couches by fires and chat with glasses of wine, or puff on cigars and play pool or cards. Cas always did want to do something else during the night hours that many other creatures slept.

He could sense that the younger Winchester was having a rough sleep, and so he quietly slipped out the door, leaving the din and talking behind as he wandered alone through the interior balconies that framed the main arena, he could see it was dotted with bathtubs from up here. He tried to be as quiet as possible as he positioned himself above the maid's quarters, and he slipped over the railing and with a loud rustle of his wings he fluttered down.

He slipped through the door, quietly shutting it behind him, and squinted into the dark, scanning the futons for where the human brothers may be. When he saw a blanket with two and not one lump, he padded up to it and saw both Dean and Sam's serenely sleeping face peeking up from over the quilt.

Quietly, he extended his wings, lifted the corner of the quilt and slid underneath, layering his fully extended wing over the two brothers and tucking the other one underneath him. Cas nuzzled under the covers, his legs, he was still wearing his usual pants, tangling with Dean's bare ones.

Cas shot out energy to the part of his wing that was touching Sam, and the little brother fell into a much more pleasant dream right away.

"I will watch over you, Sam and Dean Winchester." Cas smiled and snuggled his cheek into the pillow that also was holding Dean's head. "I'm sorry if I scared you earlier. I only was trying to protect my friends."

Cas did not have friends. He hadn't had a friend since..well, _ever_. It was always his family only, and his older brothers were always poking and teasing. Cas wrapped one of his arms around Dean's chest.

That name, his birthname, it suited him much better than the name Abaddon had given him. Cas sure wished he could nod off to sleep right about now, but this was the second best thing he could get.

Dean woke up the next morning to a dull, grey light entering the room, and rain was still pattering heavily on the balcony outside. He felt well-rested, and he was glad to see nothing bad had happened to his brother, who was breathing shallowly, a warm lump in his arms. Cas was gone without a trace, but he had taken Dean's human clothes with him for safekeeping, so they wouldn't be destroyed by Abaddon's henchmen.

"Lucy, wake up. Time for our first day of work." Dean prompted gently. "C'mon, sleepyhead." He nudged him again and Sam groaned sleepily and slipped further under the covers.

"Mmm, five more minutes." Sam yawned. Dean then noticed something strange as he drew his eyebrows together.

"Huh," Dean huffed out, pinching the stem of the raven-black feather in his fingers and twirling, watching as even the dim light sent glimmers of indigo and violet into his eyes. He placed the feather down gently next to his futon and also noticed his clothes were gone. Sam's wet uniform was even hung up nearby and completely dry.

"Weird." Dean said with a smile. _Just maybe..._


	7. Chapter 7

Work was hard, but it wasn't so bad. They went with Meg to the first assigned bath room, the room was coated with filth, pine needles strewn everywhere and the bathtub looked like it had been a mudbath previously.

"Ugh! What do I look like, Billy Ray? Think I enjoy all this cleaning?" Meg tied her uniform straps a little tighter and handed Sam a broom and Dean a bucket and washcloth.

"Lucifer, you've got floor duty. And you're coming into the bath with me, li'l boy." The demon smirked. "And you better work hard, or the vampires are gonna come around and drink your blood...and the zombies will eat your brains and the werewolves'll take your heart and the wendigos will take whatever's left!" She taunted in a sing-song voice, and Dean set his lips in a line and began scrubbing the grime off the walls furiously, the brush foaming up quickly and sending little sudsy flecks throughout the air.

"Oh, you're no fun. Tough skin, huh? That sucks." Meg chuckled. "You missed a spot, squirt."

Soon enough, the brothers forgot about the threats to divvy their body parts up amongst the monsters, an began to have a little fun with their new job, running along the slick trail the mop left and racing as they scrubbed the floors, flicking suds onto each other as they scrubbed the walls of the bath with furious up-and-down motions, dirty foam squishing between their toes.

"Alright, quit messing around!" Meg ordered, a smile creeping onto her lips as she scolded the two and whapped Dean with her pointy black tail. "You humans are the worst."

"Ow!" Dean rubbed his bottom and frowned. "That's no way to treat an apprentice!"

"Oh, I could treat you much worse." She lowered her voice, and whacked both of them hard with her ink-black, spaded tail. "Now get back to work, meatbags."

The brothers were more than happy to finally get off work for a few-hour break, their fingers wrinkled and permanently soapy, and their arms were sore. They were heading back to their quarters to freshen up, Sam clinging tightly to Dean's arm like he had been doing ever since they arrived here, the two walking in step.

"Cas!" Dean called out as he saw a glimpse of him in the hallway. "Cas, dammit, you have some explaining to do!"

The angel hesistantly stopped and looked to Dean's angry face. His own lips were let into a nervous line as he came a little closer, his dark wings shuffling uncertainly.

"Hello, Michael and Lucifer." Cas said, trying to stay calm. His heart was pounding a mile a minute.

"Why'd you offer to let these monsters kill us?" Dean hissed, angry. "I thought you said you were our  _friend_!"

Cas surged forward and gripped his wrist, his wings puffing in irritation. " _Keep it down,"_  He growled back. "I am your friend. That was the only way I could get you two to stay. And it worked, didn't it?"

Dean bit down on his teeth, his jaw protuing just a little, but he didn't say anything.

"I told you I would help you and I am. In fact, I was going to bring you to your father in his pen today." At this, Dean's jade eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. "But if you don't want my help..."

Cas had to force himself not to smile as his tactics were working. Dean stiffened and narrowed his eyes. "Okay, fine. I get that you had to. I want you to bring us to dad."

Cas looked like he was thinking. "You two need food. The mess hall runs out very quickly, and then you wouldn't eat until dinner. One of you must head there now and get food for the two of you, while I take another to see your dad."

Dean narrowed his eyes in thought. He already knew Sammy was scared by this whole ordeal, and he didn't want to scare him even more by having him see John in his porcine form again.

"Lu. Go get lunch for us." Dean bit out, knowing his little brother would be mad at him for the decision.

"But Mic-" He started to whine.

"No buts." Dean interrupted him. "I want you to go get food for us, Lucy."

Sam crossed his arms, angry. "I don't  _want_  to go all by myself!" He pouted. " _Michael_!"

Cas came forward and touched him with two fingers on the forehead, and Sam relaxed just a little. "I've put a spell on you to keep you safe." Cas said in a soothing voice. "None of the creatures here would dare harm you now."

Sam bit his lip but nodded. "Okay," He agreed quietly, reaching out and squeezing Dean's hand. "Make sure daddy's doing okay? That he won't be turned into bacon?"

"Okay, Lu." Dean replied. "Go get all the yummy stuff before the other monsters steal it, okay?"

Sam nodded and finally was pattering away by himself. Dean looked to Cas, who had spread his wings wide. "Now, come with me." He snatched up his hand.

Dean couldn't help but let out a startled sound as he was suddenly being tugged at an extremely fast speed through the bath house, cringing as every time he thought he'd smack facefirst into a monster he was tugged in a different direction. The creatures and rooms sped by, and finally they burst outside.

The two flew quickly over the bridge and made a sharp turn into some flowering hedges, the plants speeding by in a whirlwind of color before the two of them stopped short in front of the shaded pig pens.

Cas silently stood and nodded to a pen that held an oversized, pink pig, and Dean, awestruck, approached the dirty pen.

"This is my dad?" He asked quietly, trying to clear his throat to get the tears out of his voice as he curled his hands over the fence. Cas nodded, slowly coming up next to Dean and unfurling his wing, reassuringly layering it on his back. "I'm sorry." He said quietly.

A tear rolled from Dean's eyes. "I want him back to normal. I want to go home." He gulped back, but it was no help as more tears rolled from his eyes anyway. "Cas-"

"Things will be okay, Dean. I promise you."

Dean was quiet for a second. "Dean. That's my name, isn't it?" He sniffed and dragged his hand across his eyes.

"Yes. I will remember it for you." Cas reassured him. "Now, we must go, before someone catches us."

The flight back wasn't as bad as the first one. Dean almost enjoyed it. He like seeing the beautiful gardens and especially liked seeing that beautiful blue ocean that seemed to have sprung up overnight.

"Why is there suddenly an ocean, Cas?" Dean asked once they'd stopped on the red bridge.

"Well, it was raining very hard last night, remember?" Cas replied.

"Yeah, but not enough to make a damn ocean!" Dean laughed.

"You'd be surprised." Cas simply answered. The two went back inside to find Sam.

...

"Excuse me," Sam was practically squeaking, he shivered as the cold scales of a gigantic cobra slithered past, brushing his bare leg. "Um, excuse me.." He felt like he would never get closer to the buffet table at this rate.

"Hey, didn't you douchenozzles hear him?" A female voice piped up, and next thing Sam knew his wrist was snatched up and he was being tugged to the very front. He quickly grabbed two bentos with rice, vegetables and meats and turned to see who had helped him.

She looked like she would be his age, eight or nine, and her eyes were pure black. She had dark brown hair and a swishing black demon tail.

"What's your name, cutie?" She smiled at him, and Sam got a jolt down his spine.

"Uh...Lucifer." He answered. "W-what's yours?"

"Ruby." She aswered confidently, shaking her hair out of her face. She grinned again at him. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around!" She then was gone, swallowed up by the crowd.

Sam, confused, stumbled from the chaos of the lunch line and spotted Dean and Cas waiting for him, holding hands.

"Hi guys." Sam said, handing Dean his lunch. "Uh, why are you holding hands?"

Dean reddened and tore his hand from Cas's. "He flew me here. Obviously." He said gruffly, wiping his hand off on his red uniform and taking the boxed lunch. "C'mon, let's eat. I'm frikkin' starved. And we got work again for the night shift." He strode away quickly, leaving Cas and Sam to follow, Cas tipping his head to the side in confusion as they followed Dean through the crowded mess hall.


	8. Chapter 8

"Alright, so we'll just be freshening up a few empty rooms tonight." The ghost Jo said, her hands on her hips as she looked down at the two little boys. "Meg worked you two pretty hard this morning, huh? I'll go easy on you, don't worry."

"But Cas said if we don't work hard-" Sam spoke up, a little frown on his face.

Jo rolled her silvery eyes. "Oh, never mind Cas. Or the creatures here, for that matter. You guys don't smell like humans anymore, and I'm sure they'd have already forgotten."

She brought out a mop and a little squeegie and handed them to the boys. "Windows 'n floors. That's all you guys have to do tonight. Then you can go to sleep, or do whatever you want for the rest of the night. Sound good?"

The two nodded shyly. "Why are you so nice to us?" Sam piped up, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind his ear.

Jo smiled. "Well, you called me pretty, for one." She teased, and Sam blushed. Jo shrugged. "Well, I guess it's cause I used to be a human too, before I was a ghost. Not too long ago, either." She waved at them to start work. "I'll be back in a little to see how it looks. No goofing around, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," They both replied quietly, Dean got the mop ready and him and Sam both went to fill their buckets with water.

Jo went out of the room to go talk to her brother, slowly opening the screen door. "Ash?" She called out, opening the door a little to see her mulleted brother sleeping, hovering and bobbing slightly up and down as he floated just above his desk chair where the computer sat.

"Ash!" She called out, and he flailed and fell with a dull thunk at his desk. "Geez, lady. Haven't any other spirits told you not to wake a levitating ghost?"

Jo rolled her eyes. "I just want to know if you've solved the riddle as to why everyone's getting along so well with each other. And why time isn't working right."

Ash shook his head no. "Sorry, li'l sis. I haven't gotten that much closer to solving it. I'd have to do a little more research into dark magic and what kind of spells they are, what produces them, yadda yadda. No such luck yet." He perked up at looked at Jo, cocking an eyebrow.

"But hey, I did beat the computer at chess 99 times in a row. Want to see me win the hundredth?"

Jo smiled but rolled her eyes. "Just keep up the work, Ash."

He made a tip his cap motion. "Will do, li'l sis. For now, this computer is getting  _owned_." Jo couldn't help but laugh as she floated back out of the room to check on the little maid boys.

...

Sam and Dean were walking back to the maid's quarters to go to sleep when Dean saw Cas walking in a group of all the other angels, he was by far the smallest out of all of Cas's brothers and sisters. He was the only one who looked Dean's age, twelve, while he had three older brothers and a sister who looked like they would be mid-twenties or thirties. All of them were wearing fluffy white towels, and Dean figured they were heading to the baths.

Cas looked over and saw Dean, his face lit up into a smile, but was obscured as a wing pulled him away. "Come now, Cas." The tallest brother, a man with olive skin, pitch black hair and golden eyes tucked Cas into his wing as they kept walking.

Dean frowned, but started to laugh as Cas spat out the feathers and backed away from the winged embrace, his tallest brother frowning but letting him go. Cas pattered over to Dean and Sam and smiled, Cas was hoisting up his towel to make sure it didn't slip down.

"You're off work already?" He asked, his wings shuffling happily.

"Were those your family members?" Dean asked, motioning to the group of angels chatting easily with each other as they kept heading towards the bath area.

Cas shrugged. "Yeah. You already met my brother Chuck. He's holed himself up in his room typing up his dumb 'Natural' books ever since you guys arrived. But those are my brothers Gabe, Raph and Balt and my sister Ana."

Dean went a little red as Cas glanced over his shoulder to see how far away the group was getting.

"Sorry," Dean quickly said. "I..I don't want to interrupt anything."

Cas shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I'm actually glad I saw you guys, my family can be a pain in my butt. Why don't you come with me? I'll show you how the baths work around here." Dean smiled that they'd caught Cas in one of his sweet moods. He was pretty intimidated when his friend did that low, threatening voice kind of thing with his wings sharp and wide.

"Why do two of your brothers have six wings and not two?" Sam asked as they walked, tugging a little on Cas's wing in questioning.

"Some people call us angels, but we can also be called bird-spirits." Cas answered. "I'm only a bird-spirit. But my brothers Raph and Gabe are archangels, also called phoenix-spirits, and much more powerful than me."

"It must be nice having family here with you." Dean said, as he noted the soft expression on Cas's face.

"Yes. I suppose. They tease me very often because I'm the youngest." He frowned. "Balt and Gabe tease the most. But sometimes they can be okay."

Dean realized something. "That was why you chose to save me and Lucy when we first got here? Because we were a family too?"

Cas's mouth pressed into a line. "One of the reasons." He answered simply. Dean wondered what in the hell he could have meant by that.

"This way," Cas prompted before Dean could ask anyhing else. They trailed Cas as he led them down the hallway, paper screens with shadows cast over them all the way down. They saw the angels slip into one booth and Cas led them into the bath next to it.

He looked a little sad all the sudden, his eyes getting a kind of distant gaze. "It doesn't mean we're any less trapped."

"Huh?" Dean asked, just as they rounded into their booth and slid the paper screen shut.

"Having my family here. It doesn't mean we're any less trapped." Cas frowned. "All of us have had our real names stolen away, and we are bound to this place. Time doesn't work the same here either, and there is a bewitchment on this place."

Cas slipped into the steaming waters and let out a little sigh, flexing his wings through the water. He dunked the feathers, and they shone like wet ink as water dribbled between his feathers.

"What do you mean time doesn't work the same?" Dean asked, also slipping into the vitamin-rich waters, they were a salty kind of semi-opaque color and the hot, flowery scent curled into his nose. Sam sunk his nose underwater so just his sopping mop of brown hair could be seen above the water, along with his curious blue eyes, and he blew a few big bubbles to pop in front of his nose. Luckily, he wasn't paying much attention to what Cas and Dean were conversing about.

"How long would you believe to have been here for, Michael?" Cas asked, his eyes growing weary as he combed his fingers through the wet feathers of one dark wing.

Dean screwed up his face in thought. "Hmm. Maybe, two days or so? Maybe three?"

Cas sighed, his wings drooping a little farther into the hot murky waters at the action. "No. It has been close to three  _weeks_."

Dean sputtered and tried to argue. "No, but, see, I know we only have seen three nights here, right?"

"It's all because of Abaddon. She uses the bathouse to rob customers of all their money, keep them happy so they spend more and more, she never lets the creatures attack each other, haven't you noticed? And once they've used up all their gold on her, it's out into the streets they go. We still haven't figured out why she makes time move so quickly, she keeps that top-secret." Cas frowned again. "I am the only one who can keep the real time. And remember names. I will never forget yours, Dean and Samuel Winchester."

"Then we have to get out of here soon!" Dean felt himself getting very panicky once again. "I don't want to spend forever in this place with all these monsters!"

Cas suddenly looked quite hurt by that comment. "I am not a monster, Michael." His voice rumbled as he avoided Dean's eye, standing up, concealing himself with his wings and wrapping a dry towel around himself once again.

"Cas, hey, you know I didn't mean it like that. Of course you're not a monster, you're my friend." Dean frowned too. "Please don't go yet. I don't understand so much..."

"Most of what you don't understand is mutual." He said gruffly, one leg already out of the bath. "I will try to speed up your final departure."

"Cas, buddy, c'mon!" Dean called after him, but the angel was already leaving behind shiny footprints as the last he saw of him were those black wings as he rounded the corner. God dammit, it seemed something he did always got that angel's little feathers in a ruffle. He was interrupted from his thoughts as Sam splashed him with a faceful of bath water.

"Oh, you're gonna get it now!" Dean laughed, splashing Sam back with a salty wave twice the size of the first.

Cas finally pattered up to the bath with his older siblings and shyly slipped into the murky waters, these were tinted a kind of rosy pink and smelled like passionfruit.

"Oh, look who finally decided to grace us with his presence." Gabriel smirked, his arms splayed wide as his leaned back comfortably on the edge of the tub.

"Can it, Gabe." Cas shot back moodily, his wings twitching in the water, creating little splashing sounds.

"He smells like Human." Balthazar commented cooly, taking a sip of his champagne. "It might have something to do with sleeping with the both of them in the maid's quarters a few nights ago."

Cas flushed red. "Shut up, Balt! It's not like that..I..."

The two men began cracking up, throwing their heads back and roaring at Cas's embarrassed reaction. Meanwhile, the phoenix-spirit Raphael was giving the young angel a stony stare with those golden eyes, popping brightly in contrast with his dark skin.

"You should never have helped humans come into this world. They only cause trouble, they always will. Creatures of any kind come here to seek refuge and peace, and these humans have a father who hunts them down." Raphael scolded in his usual flat, monotone voice. "You must rid of them, Castiel. All you have to do is lead them across the river, and they will never need to find this place again for as long as they live."

Cas frowned. "I will not allow them to leave without their father, in his normal skin. They have suffered too much in their short lives to lose another loved one."

"It's a long process, Castiel. You could bring harm to yourself." Ana warned him, but her voice was very gentle and kind, not harsh and scolding like his brothers. "Choose from your heart what the best choice is."

"I will help the humans to return home." Cas replied stubbornly, crossing his arms. "Even if that means it will hurt me."

"You bet it will." Balthazar quipped next to him. "I can see it as if it were right there in front of me. That little baby heart of yours is reaching out, yearning for a first love. And I see that little cupid's arrow in your baby heart matches with the one sticking out of a certain green-eyed human?"

Cas frowned again, sinking a little deeper into the pink-salted waters.

"Cassie has a cru-ush!" Gabriel teased in sing-song. "Cassie and Micheal, sittin' in a tree-"

"Stop it!" Cas covered his pink face with his palms. 

"An angel's love cannot easily be broken, baby brother." It was Ana who spoke up again this time. "It is quite possible your bond with one or even both humans will last for many, many years."

Cas once again climbed from the tub. "Then I am willing to make that sacrifice!" He strode from the bath room, slamming the paper screen shut behind him. He knew were to start; Abbadon had a twin sister who lived a few towns away, it would take a few hours by train, and a few more hours by flight. Abaddon would not easily give up her new "maids", who were more like slaves because they were unpaid. She really was all about the wealth, and a fat pig like John would also bring in more gold.

He knew that if he went to the house of her twin sister Naomi, even though it was going to be dangerous for him, he could save the brothers even faster. And he knew now that he not only felt responsible for the two little humans he had saved, but he was beginning to love them as well.


End file.
